Pollyanna!

April 15, 2008

I had the most "foot in the mouth" moment!

As many of you know, coach surfers is a website where you can put your profile up and advertise yourself and your coach to others worldwide. The benefit of this is that if you want to go traveling all you do is find a coach surfer in that location and ask to stay with him or her. You can also accept guests in your house to stay on your coach. My friend Jeremie does this often, and has about two or three coach surfers on a slow month.

One of them in particular is a very lovely girl named Amanda from Atlanta. She has been nothing but smiles and positive thinking. Everywhere this girl goes, here in Puerto Rico, she somehow makes friends with everyone. The first time we met her was in this ghetto bar in Santa Rita called La Gran Paseo (or something like that) She asked us to meet her there, she was by herself and had walked there from whatever coach surfer she was staying with in Santa Rita.

When we got there she had about three guys surrounding her, which is no suprise since she is good looking and sociable. Even the fact that she doesn't speak spanish had no impact on her visit. Later that day a bum gave her a high five and danced for her. As the night progressed she had somehow met everyone at the bar and they all loved her.

This is one example but there were many more similar examples to follow.

So stupid me had to say the stupid thing right before saying goodbye to her a few nights ago.........

"You are like the girl Polyanna in that really old movie by Walt Disney.... You know with Haylee Mills?"

"I have never seen that movie, what is it about?" she said with a smile.

"Well Polyanna was this girl that moved into this little town where everyone was negative and angry all the time. She tried so hard to lift everyone's spirits and for that everyone thought she was annoying and hated her without her knowing."

Amanda gasps. I being too dense to realize what insults I as making continued....

"So Polyanna sneaks out of her window one night and falls, breaking her neck and becoming paralyzed for life. The whole town laughed at her and said ""it was about time this happy little bitch becomes sad like the rest of us.""

Amanda turns red with anger as I continue telling this version of the movie Polyanna according to me. I fail to read her body language and continued.

"Except one old lady who was specially annoyed with Polyanna decided to visit her and try to be positive with her. And it actually worked."

After I finished the story Amanda looked furious, embarrased for me, and suprised all at the same time. It was at this moment that I realized that I had invertinly called her 'annoying' and that everyone 'hated her' and we hope she 'breaks her neck.'

I then tried to pick up the broken pieces of a friendship that we had never really started, but I was wanting to start. I kept on trying to make it better by saying. "But Polyanna was annoying and everyone hated her, not like you.........you are cool and everyone likes you."

I could not clean up the word vomit that I had just let out......

So yesterday, my lovely Polyanna (Amanda) got in a car accident with my friend Jeremie that left her with bruises on her legs, first degree burns and neck pain. And just like Polyanna she smiled and told me "I almost broke my neck like Polyanna! Wouldn't that be weird after all you told me,I resemble Polyanna"

Note to self: Dont' make comparisons anymore